Buckingham Palace Rebuts Earl Spencer's Memoir Claims Regarding King Charles After Diana's Death

A fierce dispute has emerged between Buckingham Palace and Earl Spencer following the disclosure of explosive allegations in a forthcoming memoir about Diana, Princess of Wales. In his upcoming book, Diana's brother claims that King Charles III sounded "giddily elated" when speaking to him by telephone shortly after her tragic death in 1997. The allegations have drawn an unusually direct and public rebuttal from royal officials, who have cast serious doubt on the reliability of the Earl's recollections.

According to excerpts from the book, the Earl alleges that the then-Prince of Wales reacted to the news in a manner starkly different from others who contacted him that morning. Earl Spencer writes that Charles sounded comparable to a "lottery winner" during their conversation, offering an account that places the King's personal conduct and emotional response under intense scrutiny nearly three decades after the tragedy.

Buckingham Palace responded firmly to the claims, emphasizing that long-standing grief can deeply alter personal memories. A palace spokesperson stated that while the royal household does not comment on books as a standard principle, the King remains mindful of how the pain of fraternal loss can cloud human reason, affect personal judgment, and color recollections in ways that other people do not recognize, even decades after a family member's passing.

The contentious memoir, titled *Swan Song: Diana, My Sister*, is scheduled for publication next week. Ahead of its full release, initial excerpts were published by the Daily Mail, bringing a series of deeply personal charges into the public sphere. The revelations have reignited debates surrounding the turbulent history between the royal family and the Spencer household.

In the book, Earl Spencer details the precise sequence of events on the morning of August 31, 1997. He recalls being awakened at his residence in Cape Town, South Africa, by a middle-of-the-night telephone call from his sister Jane, who first notified him of the devastating car crash in Paris. Subsequent calls confirmed Diana's death, culminating in the phone conversation with Prince Charles.

Contrasting Charles's demeanor with that of other callers, the Earl writes that whereas other individuals were stunned and struggling to articulate condolences or practical offers of assistance, the prince sounded remarkably upbeat. During that same conversation, Charles reportedly informed Spencer that he had already broken the tragic news to Princes William and Harry in their bedrooms at Balmoral early that morning.

These recent excerpts follow earlier disclosures from the memoir that sparked palace pushback earlier in the week. Among those previous claims was an allegation that Charles had dismissively remarked about the late princess, asserting that the royal family would forget her soon enough. The Palace strongly contested the credibility of those claims upon their initial publication.

Faced with the latest set of allegations, royal officials have reiterated their firm rejection of the depiction of Charles in the immediate aftermath of the Paris crash. The Palace has maintained its earlier position, declining to engage in a detailed point-by-point refutation while pointing directly to its previous statements regarding the unreliability of clouded memories.

Other members of the royal family have similarly refrained from entering the public fray. Representatives for Prince Harry have formally stated that they will offer no comment on the contents or assertions found in his uncle's new memoir, leaving the public debate centered between the Earl's writings and the official Palace response.

Beyond the events of 1997, the memoir also explores the origins and deterioration of Diana's marriage to Charles, which ended in divorce in August 1996. Spencer claims that on the eve of the royal wedding in July 1981, a confidante of Diana disclosed that Charles had told her he was pleased to marry her but was not actually in love with her.

The author observes that the royal union became deeply troubled from its earliest stages, writing that he is confident both spouses experienced profound moments of despair with one another as their marital difficulties escalated over the years.

In addition to marital strife, Spencer shares his personal conclusions regarding his late sister's mental health. He writes of his belief that Diana had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), accompanied by Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, which he characterizes as an intense psychological agony triggered by perceived criticism or rejection from others.

The memoir further asserts that the late princess contemplated taking her own life on multiple occasions during the later years of her life. However, Spencer writes that Diana's profound devotion and love for her young sons ultimately prevented her from carrying out such actions.

The claims presented in the book represent a sharp, retrospective critique of King Charles and the wider royal establishment, interpreting their motives through a severe and critical lens. Because these assertions rely primarily on Spencer's personal memory of private dialogues from nearly thirty years ago, their veracity remains a subject of intense controversy.

The emergence of the memoir leaves observers to assess how the public will ultimately receive the Earl's disclosures. Observers question whether readers will embrace the text as an authentic and unique perspective from Diana's immediate family, or whether they will view the release of such intimate private grievances as inappropriate so many years after her death.